What's the music industry doing on climate change

The music industry is certainly not the No. 1 emitter of carbon, but it is associated with a large carbon footprint, including concerts, touring, music festivals, etc. The pandemic forced large gatherings of people to take a back seat. But now, concerts and music festivals are making an eco- friendly come-back! And could this be a learning lesson for the fashion industry post-pandemic?

Recently, British rock band Coldplay's concert videos went virtual on different social meida platforms, especially in China. Apart from the energetic live sets and their greatest hits, the band is also reimagining an eco future for concerts and music festivals.

In fact, Coldplay has also pledged to make the tour climate positive, drawing down more carbon than it produces, guided by three key principles:

Reduce, including by cutting tour carbon emissions by 50%;
Reinvent, including supporting new green technologies;
Restore, by funding nature- and technology-based sustainability projects.

©Coldplay

According to its website, the band is also attempting to implement a 12-point plan, aimed at cutting their carbon footprint by 50%, using its previous tours as a baseline. Some of the scheme's highlights include 100% renewable energy for every single show; “kinetic flooring”, a form of power generated by the fans through their movement at Coldplay’s shows - This energy will be stored in what will become the first-ever mobile rechargeable show battery, developed in partnership with carmaker BMW. The battery itself also comes from recycled sources—specifically the old batteries taken from old BMW i3 electric cars.

Fans going to the tour will be encouraged to lower their individual carbon footprint too, with rewards for those who travel to and from Coldplay concerts using low-emissions routes. Using the official tour app, the audience will receive discounts at venues if they choose carbon-friendly transportation, such as bikes or trains rather than planes. At the venue, fans will be able to purchase merchandise that has been sustainably and ethically sourced. There will be no charge for drinking water, in order to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic bottle waste—fans can simply bring their own cups and bottles to refill. It also includes a tree being planted for every sold ticket, sustainable aviation fuel to transport the band and bamboo-built sets.

As one of the most successful pop-rock bands, Coldplay's previous tour “Head Full of Dreams” hit a pause in 2019 due to the band's environmental concerns. Instead, they spent the past two years working on an ‘eco-friendly’ tour, the band wrote when they launched the tour on their social channels, “So we’ve spent the last two years consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible, and, just as importantly, to harness the tour’s potential to push things forward.”

According to a study done at Yale University and George Mason University, the age demographic of those attending these concerts or festivals is the same as those who are most concerned about climate change. A growing number of artists with global reach, including Billie Eilish, Lorde, Harry Styles, are continuing to help the cause significantly.

Gen-z icon Billie Eilish committed to reduce the environmental impact of her 2022 Happier Than Ever world tour and take action on the climate crisis, by offering plant-based foods, eliminating disposable waste, working to offset emissions, etc. At each of Eilish's “Happier Than Ever” shows, an Eco-Village was set up on the concourse for all ticket holders. Each village offers custom reusable bottles in exchange for donations. Free water refill stations will encourage reuse and discourage disposables. Fans even get to represent their love for Eilish’s music with merchandise made with upcycled materials and purchase sustainable vinyl copy of the Happier Than Ever album with FSC Certified paper, vegetable-based inks, and bio-wrap packaging made from sugarcane.

New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde is also taking steps to make her tour more sustainable and empowering her fans to take action for people and the planet. Apart from eliminating disposable waste, and working to offset emissions, the Solar Power Tour creates a platform for fans to meet and take action with local women and BIPOC-led environmental nonprofits doing great work in communities around the United States. Besides, excess food from catering will be donated to local food outreach programs, while unused toiletries from hotel stays and donating to local shelters for people in need.

English singer-songwriter Harry Styles' Love On Tour also made a great impact on delivering important messages on taking action to tackle climate change. According to the tour's impact report on sustainability, the 2021 tour eliminated significantly more emissions than it created, including fan travel to and from the show; a total number of 33,900+ single-use plastic bottles were eliminated; Harry and his fans are taking action on supporting projects for good causes, including Kenya Clean Water Project, Sky Wind India Project and Solar Powered Streetlights.

As awareness about climate emergency grows, more musicians and artists have taken to incorporating action into their work and using their platforms for the benefit of the planet.

British rock band The 1975 has made strides in creating a more sustainable future for the music industry - their 2020 release Notes on a Conditional Form partnered with climate activist Greta Thunberg for the title track “The 1975", in which Thunberg gives a chilling monologue over atmospheric melodies. The nearly 5-minute-long song has been streamed more than 7.5 million times on Spotify alone.

Billie's Grammy-winning debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Includes a pop track, "All the Good Girls Go to Hell", which sees Eilish sing about climate change and take the point-of-view of the Devil and God who antagonize the human race for destroying the earth.

Canadian synth-pop musician and visual artist Grimes released her forthcoming concept album, called Miss_Anthrop0cene, the “anthropomorphic goddess of climate change”, a neologism popularised in the year 2000 by Paul J. Crutzen that was proposed to denote the current geological age the Earth is in. The singer further explained, "people don't care about it [climate change], because we're being guilted." Grimes stated that she wanted "to make climate change fun" and "make a reason to look at it".

Meanwhile, English rock legend Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour has used his voice to spread climate awareness by launching a campaign to raise money for ClientEarth. In 2019, he auctioned off over 120 of his guitars for $21 million and donated every dollar to the charity. In 2019, Radiohead’s official website was hacked, and the culprit stole unreleased music and held it for ransom. Ever so cooly, Radiohead responded by releasing the music on Bandcamp, and it donated all the proceeds to the environmental activist group, Extinction Rebellion.

Music festivals are rethinking the environmental impact that they have post-pandemic. As a matter of fact, in just the U.K., music festivals alone created over 24,000 tons of carbon emissions along with creating 25,800 tons of waste and using up over 7 million tons of fuel. In 2017, there were over a million plastic products sold at the Glastonbury festivals. Since then, the festival has banned single-use plastic products.

In America, the massive Coachella music festival produces 107 tons of waste each day of the event, most of which cannot be recycled. Now the festival has made a powerful comeback after 2 years with eco-focus. The event organisers have pledged to raise environmental awareness, by recycling garbage, saving water and reducing emissions. To achieve this, they have undertaken a number of initiative, for instance, employing a waste team to maximise recycling; implementing “Carpoolchella”, a scheme that rewards four or more individuals arriving in the same car; encouraging artists to transform trash into artwork through the “TRASHed Coachella” initiative and etc.

Besides, this year, the festival features 11 installations that aim to bring people together through sustainability. Complex, dynamic and ambitious in scale and design, the site-responsive installations of Coachella 2022 explore a range of pressing topics and global themes surrounding environmental sustainability – from use to re-use, up-cycling to re-cycling, multi-cultural dialogue, immigration, community and exchange, social behavior and architecture, performance and pop culture.

“Music Climate Revolution” a project created by NGO REVERB aims to help bands reduce their environmental impact. The nonprofit that partners with musicians and concert and festival venues to make events more eco-friendly, also helps them to educate and empower fans to take climate action. And REVERB isn't the only nonprofit working toward a greener music industry. Other organizations include Activist Artists Management, Music Declares Emergency and the Jerry Garcia Foundation, which is named after the late lead singer of The Grateful Dead. The world's leading live entertainment company Live Nation also launched a sustainability-focused platform Green Nation Touring Program which helps artists adopt and scale sustainable touring practices that prioritize people and planet, as well as engage their fans to take action on climate change.

It’s been 37 years since Live Aid, one of the biggest cultural events in history, when the group of most iconic names in rock'n'roll came together for a 16-hour live concert broadcasted in 150 nations to rasie money and awareness for anti-famine causes in Ethiopia. Music has always been a shared platform for crucial issues. In changing a crucial component to combat climate change, pioneering artists like Coldplay are attempting what artists have been doing for years – leading the conversation on global issues and inspire people to take action. As Chris Martin said in an interview, "If you've had the privilege of travelling around the world, you know we're all from the same place." Seeing musicians with impact lead by example in the face of this climate and nature crisis is surely music to ears!

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